It is worth to record, without fear of retribution from the public opinion that Edgar Allan Poe was one of the founder writers of detective series. In the inaugural work The Murders in the Rue Morgue he author introduces the detective C. Auguste Dupin, who did a marvellous job in trying to put matters into perspective to unravel the mysteries around the murder that occurred. Later on, Sir Arthur Canon Doyle followed in the footsteps of Edgar Allan Poe, in terms of thematic and literary approach (Doyle, 3). A practical instance is in the book titled Conan Doyle's text A Scandal in Bohemia where the King asked the detective Sherlock Holmes to help him find an ”incriminating” photo in which the king appeared with his mistress, Irene Adler. The author writes that: “As to figuring out your practice, if someone walks into my place smelling like iodoform with black markings of silver nitrate on his forefinger and a bulge on his cap to evidence where he has been hiding his stethoscope, then it becomes easier to declare him as a practicing member of the medical profession.” This is to confirm that both Edgar Allan Poe and Canon Doyle have exhausted the writings of detectives, where the concerned detective uses scientific skills coupled with an ingenious impetus to conclude matters that seem ordinary to the common person. In the following paragraph, I will give a critique of Canon Doyle: “A scandal in Bohemia.”
In principle, the detective used his analytical mind coupled with science or evidence/proof, to arrive at the conclusion. This is to imply that the detective arrives at the verifiable conclusion that he person in the text could be a medic because, the items mentioned: iodoform and silver nitrate are commonly used in the health or medical field. The method is scientific in the sense that, the detective used available evidence or proof from medicine to verify that such a person could be a medic.
In trying to retrieve the incriminating photo for the King, in the Canon Doyle text “A Scandal in Bohemia” the detective disguises himself as a groom and spies and tracks Irene and finds himself as the best person in the wedding between Irene and her husband Godfrey Norton. Later on, the detective disguises himself as a wounded clergy and manages to enter into the house of Irene to look of the incriminating photo, where he starts some fire. During the scuffle where Irene Adler scampers for safety, Sherlock Holmes finds the photo that the king wanted. By faking the ire, the mistress of the king, Irene Adler ran for her dear life and the things she valued most in her life. The detective had a very short time to figure out where the photo could be hidden, before the owners of the house find out what was happening.
In the instance where, Sherlock Holmes concludes that Dr.Watson is indeed a medical practitioner based on the observable features including the cases where the doctor was trying to hide the stethoscope. The detective made the conclusion not only the site of the stethoscope, because anyone can carry a stethoscope and is not a doctor, but rather by disseminating the observations into realistic facts and conclusions (Keep, 9). As a detective, Sherlock Holmes had a very short time to “inquire and conclude” that Watson was a medic, he quietly inquires on whether Watson could be a doctor, and then concludes that he is a medic based on the observable features that are unique to the medical field (Farrell 38). The scientific method used here shows how Conan Doyle uses the theory to perfection, not merely by making observations, but also by disseminating the observations into realistic deductions. Conan Doyle was a physician by profession, and it comes as no surprise that he used his creativity to positive effect, because he lived during the time where detective genres were picking up in terms of public acceptance for the works.
Consequently, in Canon Doyle’s “A scandal in Bohemia” on the same tone of reasoning, Sherlock Holmes was instinctive to decipher and infer, what could be of utmost importance to a woman during her respective years. This is to say that during the progressive years of a woman in her life, there are different and varied things that could matter most to her in her life. Holmes. He then goes on to quote the case of the Darlington substitution scandal, which he says was use to him, and so too, the Arnsworth Castle business. Just like how “A married woman would grab at her baby; an unmarried woman would reach out for her jewel-box,” it was obvious to Holmes that Irene Adler had nothing in the house more precious to her than what he and Dr. Watson were looking for; the photograph. “She would rush to secure it. The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were enough to shake nerves of steel.
In the Canon Doyle’s A scandal in Bohemia the author records that “She responded beautifully” exclaimed Holmes, on how he knew that Adler would rush to save the photograph-which the King had tasked the detective with the duty of retrieving because it had the potentiality of ruining his marriage. “She was there in an instant, and I caught a glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed from the room, and I have not seen her since.” Doyle, by way of his handling Holmes in his quest for answers, duly used the psychology of women to unravel the puzzle of the missing photograph. Another feature that can be interpreted here is the social genre. Adler was involved with the King, and because their relationship would have cost the king his credibility, he wanted to move away from Adler. However, Adler’s action toward the king and her removal of the photograph can be seen as analogically as the social fallacy of an industrial England. This confirms the notion that the detective used science and observable feature to infer in his report and conclusion. The next paragraph is an analysis of different work by the same author, emphasising the same theme, of detectives.
In the genre “The valley of fear,” the author demonstrates how incompetent and unskilled the police who are involved in the investigations with Sherlock Holmes usually are. This particular genre is about the activities of Pinkerton agent James and Molly Maguires. The detective receives a coded message that Mr Douglas was murdered the previous night. The detective draws the attention of Macdonald to a painting and what was encrypted in the painting. They then move to Birlstone Manor House to go and investigate the murder. Dr Watson gave the investigative team the description of the house as a place that was surrounded by moat forty feet in breadth. Later on during the detectives works’ they realize that there was a draw bridge which was erected late in the evening, which in effect isolated the crime house from the rest of the world.
The murdered person was described as one who did not get involved in dangerous situations; thus his murder must have been motivated by something else. This was a joint operation between the police and a detective. However, the police did not look for further evidence in order to put the mysteries surrounding the death of Mr Douglas into perspective. The detective realises that the deceased must kill by a “sawed-off shotgun, which obviously came from America. The police wanted to implicate the worker of the deceased, but the detective knew for a fact that someone from America was, in a way, involved in the murder (Dove, 6). This shows that the police or the assisting investigations team was ineffective and unfruitful to this extent. But the detective further realises that there were missing clues and lead that could have proved useful to the whole investigation to help identity what went wrong for a fact. For instance, he realized that the wedding ring of the deceased was missing and that the arm of the deceased had a strange identification object.
Unlike the police who wanted to round up the investigation by examining the facts at face value, the detective noted that there was a “hidden hand which was leading the whole process to a different direction, notably away from the truth.” But the detective, Sherlock Holmes in this genre was persuaded by the circumstantial evidence, proof and data, to conclude that there was more than meets the eye as far as the investigation was concerned. In this text, he was convinced that the “missing clues and leads were to convincing to be a coincidence.
Conclusion
Sherlock Holmes was born by creating Sherlock Holmes; Doyle entered the genre of modern detective story that emerged in the middle of the nineteenth century with stories that kept the influences of Edgar Allan Poe and its followers such as Emile Gaboriau, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and others, alive. While Poe can best be described as a writer who was seriously influenced by neo-Gothic interests because of which most of his genre revolved around horror, he was party to the time of uncertainty in society, where deceit, murder for gain, revenge and arson was quite common. On the positive light, the detective Sherlock Holmes uses science-circumstantial and hard evidence to infer and make conclusions. In this regard, Panek during his writings and craft juxtapose Sherlock Holmes as a “natural scepticism and inquisitiveness towards the world,” (Panek, 2). This is to imply that he does not conclude based on observable features only but by use of evidence and analytical, scientific rigor.
Similarly, in the work titled “The Sign of Four” detective Sherlock is presented as a genius and shrewd detective because he possessed the quality and power of “deductions and observation and knowledge,” (Doyle's, 12) It is safe to say that these are the necessary benchmarks of science. Science is the use of observable features to deduce. In retrospect, this work depicts the use of scientific methods to unravel mysteries.
Work Cited
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Vol. 1. Wordsworth Editions,
1992.
Dove, George N. The reader and the detective story. Popular Press, 1997.
Doyle's" The Sign of the Four."" Novel: A Forum on Fiction. Brown University, 1999
Farrell, Kirby. "HEROISM, CULTURE, AND DREAD IN" THE SIGN OF FOUR."" Studies
in the Novel (1984): 32-51.
Keep, Christopher, and Don Randall. "Addiction, Empire, and Narrative in Arthur Conan
Panek, LeRoy. An introduction to the detective story. Popular Press, 1987.
